L-3 MSI to Supply Electrical Packages to Biogas Ferry

By Eric Haun

Monday, July 07, 2014

Samsø Færgen

L-3 Marine Systems International (L-3 MSI) announced today that it has been awarded a contract to provide advanced automation, navigation, communications and electrical propulsion facilities for Samsø Færgen, a new 100-meter, double-ended passenger/car ferry built by Remontowa Shipbuilding at its Gdansk shipyard on behalf of Danish proprietor, Samsø Municipality. Initially LNG-fuelled, Samsø Færgen is reportedly expected to become the world’s first ferry to operate on locally supplied biogas.

Due to enter service in September 2014 on domestic routes between the renewable energy island of Samsø and Hou on the Danish mainland, the eight-deck DNV-class vessel will carry a maximum of 600 passengers and 160 cars.

The NACOS Platinum integrated navigation system to be supplied by L-3 MSI’s Lyngsø Marine division, comprises S- and X-band radars linked to a series of five Multipilot multifunction consoles and associated conning units for control of all main radar, ECDIS, automatic steering and voyage planning functions. Subsidiary sensors consist of AIS, VDR, DGPS, Doppler logs, echosounders, gyros, rudder steering and indicators, wind/weather navaids and BNWAS.

The vessel’s control system is completed by L-3’s MCS Platinum automated monitoring and control system, with approximately 4,000 data inputs remote controlled from several onboard computer workstations, as well as emergency shutdown and DNV-approved LNG cargo control systems.

L-3 MSI’s SAM Electronics division is providing the ferry’s complete electrical propulsion system. The vessel will be equipped with four 850 kW azimuth thrusters, each driven by an asynchronous motor and a speed-controlled, low-voltage PWM converter featuring the latest active front-end (AFE) technology. The vessel’s power generation configuration will include the installation of two 690 V, 60 Hz propulsion switchboards, four gensets, including 1,275 kVA synchronous generators, and dual-fuel diesel/LNG engines.